South Africa protests turn violent amid rage over asylum ruling

Several cars torched and foreign-run businesses forced to shut in Johannesburg's Soweto and coastal city of Durban.

Several cars torched and foreign-run businesses forced to shut in Johannesburg’s Soweto and coastal city of Durban. Anti-migrant protests in two cities in South Africa have turned ⁠violent, with the government blaming disinformation about a court ruling on asylum seekers. Violence erupted on Thursday in Johannesburg’s Soweto township and the east coast port city of Durban, with two dozens cars set ablaze and foreign-run businesses forced to close, police said. The unrest followed demonstrations demanding that refugee centres stop processing asylum applications. Acting National Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane on Thursday said 10 vehicles were torched in Johannesburg and 14 in Durban, where three people were arrested. In Soweto, a Reuters reporter saw residents carrying groceries out of a shop they said was owned by a person from Somalia, whom they chased away.

Those residents fled after police arrived. In Durban, a Reuters reporter saw cars torched in the urban centre, where foreign-owned shops were also looted. AFP reporters in the city said police opened fire with rubber bullets to disperse protesters who reportedly set alight a business run by foreigners. The protesters are opposed to a July Constitutional Court decision that removes procedural barriers to seeking asylum, including for people who entered South Africa irregularly, lacked asylum transit visas, or missed reporting deadlines. On Thursday, the government’s Inter-Ministerial